Anti-venom shortage leads to rise in fatal snakebite cases

A woeful shortage of anti-snake venom stocks in the government-run health facilities in Odisha, has led to an alarming rise in the number of people who die of snakebites in the state.

This has led to a situation wherein snakebites  have eclipsed malaria as the major public health concern in the state. And the tragedy is compounded by the ruling BJD Government’s almost apathetic stand on the issue. Health experts say the lives of nearly 300 people, who die of snakebites in Odisha each year could be saved, if the administration ensured the free availability of the anti-venom serum.

Now, with the monsoon showers lashing the state, the number of snakebite-related deaths have registered a corresponding increase owing to the free movement of the snakes coupled with the serum’s acute scarcity.

Even the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, the state’s biggest government-run public health facility had run out of AVS stocks in the last couple of days. Each day, the SCBMCH needs about 200-300 vials of the AVS.

And the hospital has been providing AVS in only very urgent cases, so as to ride out the “lean period”.  The scenario in the coastal districts, which records a higher incidence of snakebites, is similar.

With the  Health Department taking its own time for purchasing the drug the victims  are left to fend for themselves since the AVS is not easily available in the open market in Odisha. That, the price of the anti-toxins have spiralled has not helped matters either.